The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling one or more external devices and transferring information. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for directly controlling one or more external devices or indirectly controlling a plurality of external devices connected to peripheral control equipment, in response to information received from a magnetic tape or a punched tape, and for transferring information between punched and magnetic tapes.
Information for controlling a limited number of external devices may be supplied by a programmer with a punched tape storage facility. The operation of a programmer is generally described in my pending U.S. applications Ser. Nos. 537,724 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,819, 486,805, and 537,750 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,162, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. In general, the number of external devices which can be controlled by the programmer is limited by the programmer output channel capacity. For example, a programmer having eight output channels can control eight external devices.
To expand the number of external devices which can be controlled by the programmer, without modifying the number of physical programmer channels, peripheral control equipment -- such as that described in my pending U.S. applications Ser. Nos. 537,724 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,819 and 486,805 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,162 -- can be connected between the programmer and the external devices. Thus, for example, the number of external devices which can be controlled by an eight channel programmer can be expanded from eight to forty or more.
A programmer equipped with a punched tape storage facility detects the information stored on the punched tape and supplies that information in digital form directly to the external devices or the peripheral control equipment. A programmer with a punched tape storage facility, however, cannot detect information stored on a magnetic tape. Moreover, the digital representation of the information stored on the punched tape cannot be directly stored on a magnetic tape for later use.
It may, however, be desirable to control one or more groups of external devices in synchronism using a multiple track magnetic tape. Additionally, it may be desirable to use one track of the magnetic tape for controlling the external devices in synchronism with an entirely different function performed by another track of the magnetic tape. For example, in audio-visual applications, it may be desirable to have the audience listen to narrative description or background music stored on one track of the magnetic tape while controlling a number of external devices such as slide projectors, sound sources and so forth in synchronism with the narrative or background music. For this purpose, another track on the magnetic tape would be used to store the information for controlling the external devices.
Moreover, where information has already been stored on one of the punched and magnetic tapes, it may be desirable to transfer that information to the other of those tapes. For example, in audio-visual applications, the narrative description or background music may be pre-recorded on one track of the magnetic tape while the basic program for controlling the external devices has been recorded on the punched tape. To operate the external devices in synchronism with the narrative description or background music, the punched tape information should be transferred to another track on the magnetic tape.
Thus, a principal advantage of the present invention is to control a number of external devices either in response to informaton stored on a magnetic tape or on a punched tape.
A further advantage of the present invention is to transfer information between punched and magnetic tapes.
A still further advantage of the invention is to control a number of external devices and transfer information between punched and magnetic tapes without requiring the re-design of programmers and peripheral control equipment extant in the art.
Other advantages and applications of the present invention will become manifest from the following portions of the specification.